The present invention relates to the field of metal forming in general and is concerned more specifically with four-die forging devices; it can be used to forge ingots and blanks of a variety of steels and alloys on forging presses, including hydraulic forging presses. The invention can be employed in machine-building and metallurgical industries for the production of long-sized components like rods, columns, intermediate shafts, torsion bars, mill rollers and also in the production of forged blanks from ingots and rolled stock of carbon steels, medium-alloyed steels, tool steels, high-alloyed steels and alloys and also non-ferrous metals and alloys.
Known in the prior art is a four-die forging device having dies with a working surface of each die generated by a number of planes, top- and bottom dies holders comprising inclined sliding planes and side dies holders formed to have inclined sliding planes corresponding to said sliding planes of top- and bottom die holders and arranged so that they are movable relative to said top- and bottom die holders while being interconnected thereto by means of eight guiding ways of Π-shaped cross-section fixed on the holders, internal planes of which guiding ways are formed to enclose the planes of die holders thus creating a clutch-type connection (RU 2282517 C2, MΠκ(2006.01) B21J 1/04, 13/00, 7/16, 27.08.2006).
The present device provides for high output of the forging process and high metal quality of forged parts. However, such design does not ensure high reliability and long service life of the device.
The most similar to the claimed four-die forging device is the embodiment according to the Russian Federation patent (RU 2314175 C2, MΠκ(2006.01) B21J 13/02, 10.01.2008) comprising top- and bottom die holders having inclined planes, two side die holders having inclined planes which correspond to respective inclined planes of the top- and bottom die holders and being operationally interconnected thereto by means of side apart-guiding ways of F-shaped cross-section, centering guideways installed on the inclined planes of the top- and bottom die holders or on the inclined planes of side die holders in one plane or in a plurality of planes which are perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the device and arranged in the centering grooves formed by groove walls made on the inclined planes respectively of side die holders or top- and bottom die holders and by side planes of antifriction plates arranged on the inclined planes of die holders.
The described embodiment provides for a sufficiently long service life of the device with no need for reconditioning arising from score building on the working surfaces of the antifriction plates. However, the known forging device yields neither high production efficiency nor sufficiently high reliability because of some of its components being damage-prone and vulnerable to increased wearing-out.
It is an object of the present invention to develop a four-die forging device for forging presses wherein by means of design improvements the risk of damage to some components is significantly reduced due to better reliability of components fastening, smooth motion without any jamming, misalignment and score building and reduced wearing-out which would result in longer repair-free service life of the device, better reliability in operation, higher forging output and better quality of forged products.